Will yeast survive???

[Rhu]

Hi,

I recently pitched two batches of cider, one S04 and one Belle Saison. I only had access to 11.5g packets of yeast, but only needed enough for 3 gallons with each yeast.

When adding the yeast to the starters, I poured from the packet rather than using a spoon to take out the yeast to avoid directly introducing any contaminants (the spoon was also sterilised) and immediately following pitching I sealed the packets as closely as possible and taped closed securely. I would love to think that they are airtight but lets go with water tight and air movement in an d out is severely limited and convoluted.

I probably over pitched slightly, but still have about half a pack of each yeast remaining. It's a fairly precious commodity to me here, it's not that easy to obtain, my nearest LHBS is about 1000 miles away...

Discounting any infection/contamination of the yeast which could only have come from exposure to the air, as was my cider to be (which is not showing any signs of infection other than by the yeast with which it was purposely innoculated) do you think the yeast will survive without being refrigerated. Daytime temps are about 27˚C (87˚F).

I think I'll probably be in a position to next use it in about 2 or 3 weeks , at which time it will have been 'open' for abut a month.

My gut tells me that it should be fine, it's dormant and the temperatures, whilst high are not going to denature anything. Bread yeast manages to survive just fine in a jar on the shelf at room temperature for months at a time..

 

[morticaixavier]

Some of it will still be alive, sure but not happy.

you should be okay if you make a big starter (I know, you're not supposed to make a starter with dry yeast but this seems to be a special circumstance).

You could also culture up some from the cider. again, it will be weak and you should start very slow, with just 50 ml or so 1.030-1.040 wort right in the bottle after you pour all but the dregs into your glass.

after that works add 200ml more starter wort and then, after a few days pitch that into 2000ml starter wort and you'll be in business.

 

[Rhu]

well I didn't want to re-use champagne yeast from the batch that just finished and I didn't want to wait another 3 weeks for the ale yeast to move to bottling so I went ahead and poured each yeast into separate cups of warmed AJ.

I was worried that they'd be slow and I was prepared to move them to steadily larger volumes until pitching them into the carboys but they went suitably crazy and were trying to climb out of the vessels within 10 minutes.

Pitched straight into the wort, 4 hours later had bubbles bursting on the surface and this morning had full fermentation under way.

Will let you know how it all turns out but initially it looks as though both Safale S04 and Belle Saison are perfectly happy in a resealed packet kept at a constant 26˚C (80˚F) for just over a month.

cheers

 

[bernardsmith]

If you can get fresh apples locally then they likely have natural yeasts on their skins so if you peel the skins and place them in a jar with apple juice my guess is that you will grow a colony of yeast that will ferment your next batch of cider. May not taste quite the same as the ciders you have been making but the yeast will be suitable for fermenting cider...

 

[Rhu]

Not much in the way of apples locally, have got a batch going with local Guava into secondary. The secondary took off like a rocket compared to two other batches that went into secondary at the same time, both topped up with juice. All things being equal, even though I sanitised the guava it must have had something else (I'm assuming a wild yeast) in it to make the fermentation restart so quickly compared to the others that also had simple sugars added at the same time.